Germany to Fund Open Source Software Maintainers Through New Fellowship Program
Quoting: Germany to Fund Open Source Software Maintainers Through New Fellowship Program - FOSS Force —
Germany is getting ready to fund open source software maintainers, the unsung heroes who keep important open source infrastructure software up to date and free from bugs and security vulnerabilities, often receiving little to no financial compensation for their efforts.
If you’re of the ilk to complain about governments giving money away and what that means for taxpayers, the Germans — or at least their government — are doing this because it will be good for the economy, meaning they think it’ll make folks better able to pay their taxes rather just empty their pockets for the taxman. This is also why they’ve already spending a substantial amount of money to help fund over 40 FOSS projects.
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Introducing the Fellowship for Maintainers | Sovereign Tech Fund
Open source infrastructure is the backbone of our digital world - and the work of the people who maintain it is essential to ensuring the security and availability of this global resource. They lead project development, review changes, manage community interactions, and tackle security issues.
Yet, most of this work happens behind the scenes, unpaid, and in maintainers’ spare time. In the long run, this isn’t sustainable, and in some cases leads to stress and burnout. The Tidelift Maintainer Study found that 59% of maintainers have quit or considered quitting, posing a risk to the digital infrastructure we all rely on.